TR 4 Nov - 14 Nov Luxor. Me & 3 Vegas Virgins

Background

10-day trip to Vegas, staying at Luxor. I (33, 5th time to Vegas) was travelling with my dad (55), Stepmum (59) and Stepbrother (26), who are all Vegas Virgins. My dad has similar tastes to me and loves to drink and gamble, Stepmum (SM) and Stepbrother (SB) have no interest in gambling at all but love shopping and wanted to experience Vegas.

Day Zero

My dad drove from Bristol to Horley (near Gatwick) where we stayed the night at the Acorn Lodge Hotel so we had somewhere to park the car and could get up close to Gatwick on the day of the flight. It proved to be a very good idea. On the night we took a short walk into town and found the excellent Foresters pub - we commented that if the price/quality of the food was this good for the next 10 days we’d be more than happy. A walk back to the Hotel in the rain at closing time made us even more desperate for the sun of Vegas!

Day One

Had a reasonable breakfast at the Acorn Lodge and got a transfer to Gatwick no problem at all. Organisation at Gatwick (as per my last few trips) was shambolic and a bit of an embarrassment to be honest. The flight over (direct with Virgin Atlantic) was extremely good – with a good selection of films, constant supplies of food and drink, and the excitement of what laid ahead, the 11 hours flew by (no pun intended). We arrived in Vegas got through Security and Luggage in quick time and was approached by a Virgin Holiday Rep who spotted the tags on our bags, she told us that when we get a taxi say to the driver ‘no tunnel’ and I allowed myself a wry smile as I thought back to the forum. We were staying at The Luxor and my dad jumped in and asked for their with no tunnel – as per my last visit the taxi driver seemed to take offence to this, not in a rude way but you could tell he was put out – I do feel a bit sorry for them as it’s not all of them that are trying to rip you off, the honest ones must get a bit peeved at customers hopping in their cabs and basically saying ‘Luxor (etc.) please, don’t rip me off’, I think I’m in the group that says jump in and take your chance without saying anything, if they take the tunnel don’t tip and tell them why if they say anything, most of the times you are going to get taken the best way without the tunnel anyway so no need to make the ride uncomfortable. SM then made the mistake of asking the taxi driver about politics (it was 4 November – election day) and was asking questions such as who he voted for, I squirmed as I remembered what I read on here about keeping politics out of Vegas, the driver seemed uncomfortable and reluctant to speak about it (SM isn’t one of the most tactful people at the best of times anyway) but he did loosen up a bit by the time we had reached Luxor.

No queue’s at check-in at Luxor at all, so we got served straight away. 2 smoking rooms on the 23rd floor (I’m the only one that doesn’t smoke but the other 3 are chain smokers) the rooms were OK but smelly (as expected). I hate smoking but figure I can put up with it in Vegas, SB has a few addiction issues so it’s best I don’t get him to stop smoking in the room incase it leads to something worse! We don’t really unpack – just take a quick shower to freshen up after the flight and then head out. After my shower I notice that the water isn’t clearing down the drain – a quick call to front desk and they say it will be sorted – buy the time we come back to the room later it was and wasn’t a problem again.

A quick comment on The Luxor, Floors 23 (I think it’s actually 22 and above) are only accessed through the 4 elevators (inclinators sorry), from Elevator 1B. These elevators could be very slow in arriving and one time I was waiting for about 10 minutes with one guy for the elevator down and he said he’d already been waiting at least 5. I would say that on average the time to get from room to Casino floor was 15 minutes, which is a long time!

We all went straight to the Flight Bar in the Luxor that is located near the front desk, it looks very nice. We ordered 4 Buds from the waitress and the other 3 were shocked by how expensive it was – Over the years they have heard me say how cheap it is to drink in Vegas, but I gamble a lot so usually just get mine for a dollar tip, I did warn them that they will be paying more from bars but still with the exchange rate doing so bad it works out that they are paying nearly double for Bud that they would drink in a bar at home, given that they are quite heavy drinkers (my dad drank over 40 Buds on one of the days/nights over there) they were a bit concerned but I assured them that things would work out and that they wont be drinking in bars like this too often.

After that drink we took a look around our ‘base’ Casino and walked along Mandalay Place to the Mandalay Bay. On the way back through we saw a happy hour (3-6) advertised at Giorgio Restaurant for $3 draft beers at the bar so we stopped in there and had a few. The barman was friendly and we decided to make this our meeting place over the trip if we break up or do our separate things.

After a few there we went out onto the strip, I would have preferred to stay mid-strip than at The Luxor to be honest as I feel that it’s too far away from the action. I felt that the family missed a bit of the wow factor of walking out into the dark night and seeing all the lights around Paris, Flamingo, Caesars etc.. instead of walking up the side of the strip where they are building the City Centre Project. We got to Bellagio Fountains and waited about 10 minutes for the show – I don’t think SM was prepared for what she saw, I could tell that she was wondering why we were waiting for some water fountains but when they came on she was blown away. I have to admit they still get me every time, it’s just such a great feeling standing there, in my favourite place in the world, watching a truly spectacular show. We were all struggling by now with jet-lag and while we all wanted to do more and see more it was clear that the bodies had different ideas. We crossed over the road and popped in Paris so they could see the skies, they wasn’t expecting that and they were beginning to get the feeling of what Vegas is all about to newcomers, something to see and experience around every corner!

We walked down further to Planet Hollywood. SM and SB started looking around the Miracle Mile shops, me and my dad struggle with shopping at the best of times let alone when jet-lagged so we told them we’d leave them to it and see them back in the rooms. Me and dad wandered through the Casino Floor of Planet Hollywood and noticed from a screen that Obama had been declared the winner of the election, was surprised to see no-one really celebrating, commenting even really caring – I guess we are in a Casino in Las Vegas, people don’t want to care about things in the real world!

We then wandered back towards Luxor and found ourselves in Excalibur where we played a couple of hours of Blackjack – I broke even but had a few drinks for my free. My dad lost a bit of money, not a lot, but it became clear to me that he didn’t know anything about basic BJ strategy and had no intention of learning about it either, this was a bit of a blow to me as I had told him about it many times before the trip but he wasn’t interested despite me telling him it’s the optimal way of playing. I had visions of me and him spending a lot of time together on the tables but there’s only so many times you can watch and see him losing everyone money from some bad decisions.

After that we went to bed – it was only about 11:30pm – not the sort of time we were planning on going to bed, but we had been up for around 36 hours by that point and were ready.

More to come, don’t worry the other days aren’t as long and boring as this first one I promise! And my notes get a bit patchy on some of them!

TR 4 Nov - 14 Nov Luxor. Me %26amp; 3 Vegas Virgins

Thanks for posting so far, I look forward to reading the rest

TR 4 Nov - 14 Nov Luxor. Me %26amp; 3 Vegas Virgins

looking forward to the rest of the TR

Day 2

Me and my dad wanted to watch the Celtic v Man Utd game so went to the Crown and Anchor Pub on East Tropicana on Wednesday morning. SM %26amp; SB did their own thing looking around the various shops and Casinos down the South end of the strip, we had arranged to meet back at Giorgios later. It was a lovely day and we arrived the the pub an hour before kick off and we drank a few drinks soaking up some rays in the beer garden before heading inside to see the game. It was advertised as being a $20 cover charge for the game but I didn’t see anyone get charged. We were both happy to see Man Utd score a late equaliser, they had most of the game and should have won but we’ll settle for a draw after being behind for such a large part of the game. After a taxi back to Luxor and we all met back at Giorgios and had a few drinks. We decided to go to Rio as I told them about Voodoo Lounge and figured it was early enough to still get in and just have a look around, however when we got there we discovered that SB didn’t have his ID with him so we couldn’t go up! Disappointment all round but at least I’ve been up there before – it was a cruel lesson but he didn’t forget his ID again (I had warned him at the start of the trip – I hadn’t left it as a nasty surprise)! We stayed and looked around Rio for a while and then headed back home. I left the others by the slots and entered the midnight $65 poker freezeout. I was surprised to see there were only 11 players. I came 4th but that wasn’t good enough, it was good to get a bit of table time in though and get the vibe of the poker room. After I finished poker I walked through the Casino to go up to the room, I saw dad sat at the BJ tables enjoying himself, he said he was going to play a few more hands and have one more drink and go to bed, he was still drinking strong and he had started at 11am at the Crown and Anchor Pub. I left him to it and went up to cath some zzzz’s

Day 3

Was awoke by SM knocking on my door at 9am saying that dad didn’t come back to the room last night, I got up and showered and went down to see where he was. He was in the same place I left him and was still playing BJ and still drinking! That’s 23 hours solid barring taxi-journeys! I told him he better go up and get some kip – he finally saw sense and went off to the elevator with a very pleased grin on his face. I don’t think he won any money but he definitely enjoyed himself – he said later in the day that he met some amazing people at his table and they were having a great time – yep that’s what it’s all about!!

As he was obviously going to be in bed for a lot of the day I decided that I would do my own thing that day – SM and SB were happy to carry on exploring the strip doing their own thing so I caught the Deuce up to my favourite casino to play my favourite game – Blackjack Switch at the Casino Royale. I love the rowdiness of that place, there is definitely a lower class of clientele but I think it adds to the atmosphere. I found a spot at a table that was being served by a cocktail waitress I’ve had on previous visits and I got to work. I was probably there for 5 hours and the cocktail waitress didn’t pass me once without handing me another drink – and she wasn’t on a very long loop. We got a good table going with a good group of guys (they were there celebrating one of their release from jail – I did say about the class of the clientele!). I ended up losing about $200 but had good entertainment for it. I headed back to the Luxor on the Deuce, the rest of the night was a bit of a blur to be honest, SB told me off for snoring too loud in the night come the morning of Day 4!

';Was awoke by SM knocking on my door at 9am saying that dad didn’t come back to the room last night, I got up and showered and went down to see where he was. He was in the same place I left him and was still playing BJ and still drinking! That’s 23 hours solid barring taxi-journeys';

Ghee it sounds like he had a good time :)

Thanks for sharing

Great TR. I loved the part about playing at a table with a guy that just got out of jail. LOL. You defenitely meet all kinds in Vegas :)

I%26#39;m with SimiRob... love the just got out of jail celebrating part=) Looking forward to the rest!

Great TR, Rawham, keep it coming! BTW, I love your description of the service (or lack thereof) at Gatwick. I don%26#39;t know if ';shambolic'; is officially recognized as a word by Webster%26#39;s, but having been to Gatwick myself, I think it should be!

What a great trip report. I am enjoying it so much. Your Dad sounds like quite the character.

Keep it coming, please.

Thanks for the kind words, I was half expecting some abuse as I%26#39;m aware that we might come across as a bit rough, but it takes all-sorts for the world to go round!

K-Bot, I%26#39;m not sure about Websters but it%26#39;s a word according to the Cambridge Online Dictionary -

shambolic

adjective UK INFORMAL

confused and badly organized:

Things are often a bit shambolic at the beginning of the school year.

Confused and badly organised, it seems a good word to be used for Gatwick then! It%26#39;s an embarrassment really.

Endless queues that go nowhere, you just stand in them until they call out your flight number and get you to go straight to the front in front of everyone else because if they don%26#39;t then they know you%26#39;ll miss the flight.

Day 4 to come soon, agreed by all that it was the best day of the trip.

Day 4

Woke up on Day 4 feeling a bit fuzzy headed. SB complained about how loud I was snoring in the night and said he had to wake me up a couple of times, oh well that can be my revenge for him stinking out the room and my clothes with his cigarettes!

We headed down to the Luxor food court for large Starbucks to clear the cobwebs and then caught the taxi to the Las Vegas Gun Store on East Tropicana. Me, my dad and SB all had a go with a package (3 guns) while they allowed SM in the room to watch and take pictures. I fired an AK-47, 12-gauge shotgun and an HK MP5 (Machine gun) and did ok judging by the targets I was given back. SB did the same package as me and loved every moment of it. My dad went for the WWII package and had different guns – I can’t remember what they were but I was jealous of the handgun he got to use and wish I had chosen a handgun instead of 2 machine guns. All of us were exhilarated by firing our first ever guns and it was a great experience, I’m not sure if I would go back again though, if you’ve fired guns before I don’t know how much enjoyment you’d get from it unless you just like to try out from the wide variety of guns they have on offer, the targets were pretty close so it was hard to miss them. Included in the price (approx $110) was a T-shirt which you can choose from quite a large range.

We got a taxi from the Gun Store to the strip and wandered around Caesars Palace, The Forum Shops and Bellagio before going to the Bellagio buffet. The folks were definitely impressed this afternoon, it’s beautiful walking around these places and it really opened their eyes up to what Vegas has to offer. I have to admit I could just as happily people-watch around these places as look at the sites and shops, it’s amazing just watching what’s going on.

The Bellagio Buffet was perfect, a great first introduction to Vegas buffets although SB was most disappointed to find himself feeling full after just 2 plates despite having a normally huge appetite and being really hungry all day – another part of the learning process – a little on the plate and lots of visits is the way forward!

After an uncomfortable (too full!) walk back to the hotel and a freshen up we headed back out for the evening and went to the Nine Fine Irishmen Bar at New York New York. The Irish Band in there are top notch, absolutely fantastic. They are called Sin e Ri-Ra and they keep the place buzzing. I think we got there at 9:00 and they didn’t finish their singing until either 2 or 3am (with a few breaks inbetween). Despite the full price drinks we drank as if we were Irish although I was the only one to venture onto the Guinness! It was a superb night and SB even bought a copy of their CD. As mentioned previously all 3 of my travel companions smoke (heavily) so they quite often went out into the Casino for a smoke as it’s not permitted within the bar. SB commented how many times he was offered drugs whilst smoking outside the bar which surprised me as I’ve not been offered once on any of my 5 visits. Granted he does look like he would want them a lot more than me but he said he was being offered quite regularly throughout the trip, I don’t know if this is a new thing that is creeping in or whether it’s just a side I am ignorant of.

At the end of the night we agreed it had been an excellent day and all headed back to bed (well, apart from my dad who stayed downstairs and gambled a bit longer of course).